Diversity will be a topic for thoughtful consideration at Catawba College November 11-15. Students have planned activities each day to help students, faculty and staff celebrate their differences. The College will be the venue for a public Meet Your Neighbor Community Forum at 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 12 in Tom Smith Auditorium that will provide for a discussion on race relations in the Salisbury-Rowan community.
Members of the campus Diversity Club have arranged for a traveling exhibit, The Race Experience kiosk, to be in place on campus throughout the week. Participants who interact with the kiosk will be able to use race morphing to consider race, racism and identity in a new light. The Race Experience will be available to campus community members throughout the week in Leonard Lounge of the Cannon Student Center.
Catawba's Diversity Club president, Jay Koontz, a junior from Lexington, hopes planned activities will help "start a conversation that won't stop."
Koontz explained that club members selected different countries on which to focus nightly. They will have tabletop displays about these countries and special foods from them available in Leonard Lounge on two evenings. Edible and diverse offerings include Columbian hors d'oeuvres on Nov. 11 and Chinese hors d'oeuvres on Nov. 14.
From closer to home - on the Carolina Coast, but still from diverse cultural territory to most students, a demonstration of Shag Dancing is planned for Thursday evening, Nov. 14 in Leonard Lounge. At 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 15, G. Yamazawa, a spoken word poet, will offer a demonstration also in Leonard Lounge.
Catawba's Historical Society will host a screening of the documentary film, "Lost Boys of Sudan," from 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, in Tom Smith Auditorium. After the film, lost boy Ngor Kur Mayol and Karen Puckett, local founder of Sudan Rowan, a non-profit that raises funds to build schools in South Sudan, will be on hand for discussion.
